Snow or Shine

I spent Fall Break in Denver, Colorado, relaxing and exploring one of the United States most beautiful areas. As I discussed in a previous blog, I was slightly apprehensive of buying into the Denver hype before I spent time in the city. Even though I had spent extended time in the Colorado mountains skiing, I was unsure if the city could possess the same open and freeing feeling that the mountains did.

While I mentioned that Denver more than lived up to everybody and my own expectations, I felt that there was an aspect missing from my previous blog post that I made the nature of Denver more breathtaking which was the environmental diversity.

On the Sunday of Fall Break, we woke up to a heavy snow that continued throughout the day. The fall leaves and the green grass that we arrived to had now been replaced by a sheet of snow. The snow was naturally accompanied by a severe drop in temperature that I was neither expecting nor prepared for.

However cold the weather was, the snow’s beauty more than made up for it.  While we were supposed to go hiking, the severe weather for non-Coloradans or normal weather for Coloradans forced us to call an audible. We ventured to a nearby hill freshly covered with snow and created makeshift sleds from plastic storage bin. I can’t say that I reached top speed on these sleds, but I did fall over several times to have a face-to-face encounter with my hands without gloves and the freezing snow.  

With all of this being said, I was really blown away by how one day you can be playing frisbee and football in the park with the sun out and the clear skies, and the next day you are in the middle of a heavy snowfall. Regardless of the weather, the people of Denver continued to go about their lives and embrace the environment through sun or snow, making Denver such a special place for all nature enthusiasts.

One of the Best Sunsets I Have Seen....No Seriously

Adjectives are tough to bring to mind when attempting to explain this sight last Thursday evening. I was walking with my head down and focus primarily on responding to a friend’s text message last Thursday. I was so engulfed in my cellular device that I did not even look up. Finally, about midway through my walk, I could see these bright colors out of the corner of my eye. So visually striking that even as I needed to respond to this friend, I could not help but look up. When I did so, I was simply amazing.

Sunsets are so fascinating to me from a personal perspective. Every time we see a unique sunset, we cannot help but shout from the heavens that this is the best sunset we have ever seen, no doubt about it. Whether it’s the color, the vastness, or the beautiful clouds, every sunset seems to be the next best one.

As I say all of this, I have to be honest that I think this was one of the best sunsets I have experienced for a couple reasons. First, the colors were stunning, especially because of the progression of color. The core of the sunset was a bright yellow and orange, but as your eyes shifted out of the core of the sun, you were blown away by the combination of blue and red that had trailing wisps of clouds that painted the sky.

Another aspect of this sunset that I had not previously experienced before was the effect the colors had on everything around me. The buildings were beaming with the same yellow, red, and orange that could be sun from above. Even the cars seen in the picture above had this same tint on the roof of the car.

The layering of the clouds was another added element to this masterpiece. The sky was not a flat canvas but one with depth and layers to it. Concentration of color on some parts of the clouds while absence of color on others.

All-in-all, one of the best sunsets I have seen….but I’m sure you will be hearing that again from me sometime soon.

             

TCU Sunset - Nature Observation 3

My whole afternoon, I spent sitting in a study room in the Scharbauer building. For hours upon hours, I stared intently into my notes, praying that I would remember the same information in a little under twelve hours. I had become so physically and mentally fatigued that I could not think or see without picturing my notes in my brain.

I continued to study for one more hour until I packed up myself and headed out the door for the BLUU for dinner. I hopped in the elevator and got off on the first floor. I turned out of the elevator and headed toward the front door. While I was putting in my headphones, I opened the door. My eyes immediately went from selecting my playlist to what was right in front of me.

The sky was a striking combination of red, yellow, and orange with a greyish sky slowly starting to engulf it. To go along with this sunset was a Frog Fountain freely flowing with the faint red lights coming from the base of the fountain. The lantern-like lights surrounded the outside of the Commons with the dark green filling the rest of the picture.

What was so striking to me was not exactly the sunset. I have been fortunate to see some pretty sunsets over my time especially at TCU. What I found so impactful was the timing of nature’s gift that I had just walked into. That whole day I spent almost no time outside. I was isolated from everybody and everything including the sun. When I walked outside, I realized that nature for me was more than something that I experienced every day. It was the breath of fresh air that gave me more than energy. It gave me life. I knew at that moment how much I missed and sorely needed the trees, the sun, the clouds, and the grass.

When I finally walked back into my room, my hope was that what I remembered from that day was not my Organizational Management leadership notes or how to create a balanced portfolio, but how much I need nature to keep me going and ultimately give me life.